


Puppy Love

by honestgrins



Series: To Rely on the Kindness of Strangers [230]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: All-Human, Childhood Friends, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25533499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestgrins/pseuds/honestgrins
Summary: Anonymous asked: KC AU AH as kids being best friends and mini!Klaus being smitten with mini!Caroline (bonus: Esther and Liz totally ship it)
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Series: To Rely on the Kindness of Strangers [230]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/378628
Comments: 11
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

The football landed on his pile of crayons, sending them flying all over his sketchbook. “Kol!”

Klaus watched as his little brother bounded over to him, snatching his ball back without even an apology. Shaking his head, he went back to his drawings. Stretching out over the lawn wasn’t his first choice, but Mother had urged them all outside so she and Mrs. Forbes could watch them from the patio. He looked over his shoulder to see his mum rubbing her belly, reminding him that yet another terror was on its way. 

As the ball came sailing back in his direction, he hoped it would be a girl; no one needed another Kol.

Before he could yell, though, flowers dropped all over his paper. Squinting up into the sun, he remembered why sisters weren’t that much better. “Bekah, stop it!”

Pouting, Rebekah dropped to her bottom and twisted a stem in her hands. She didn’t talk much, but her sad eyes said plenty. And she had Caroline to fight her battles for her. 

“Hey,” Caroline snapped, her arms crossed as she glared down at him. “She picked those ‘specially for you. Be nice.”

“They keep ruining my drawing,” he whined back. “You’re lucky not to have brothers and sisters ruining your stuff.”

She plopped down next to him, helping him pick up the flowers and building herself a bouquet. “I still have you for that,” she pointed out. “Bekah and I were having a good time, and you ruined it by complaining." As though agreeing with her, Rebekah climbed over to Caroline’s lap to play with the flowers, giggling when she waved them under her nose. 

When a daisy fell from her grasp, Klaus quickly handed it back to her. Smiling, Caroline tucked it behind his ear instead. "That’s what you get for complaining about flowers,” she warned.

Rolling his eyes, he tried not to grin as he looked anywhere else. That’s how he saw their moms watching them, smiling themselves. He scowled instead, focusing back on his sketchbook. Turning it to a fresh page, he let Rebekah hand him a different crayon. “What should I draw?”

“Our flowers,” Caroline answered, like it was obvious. She settled back on her hands, content to watch him draw and bouncing the toddler on her legs. “And make them pretty, please.”

“Petty pease,” Rebekah added in her babyish voice.

Klaus sighed, but nodded. He glanced over Rebekah to give Caroline a bored look, and she only smiled in return. “Fine, but you have to block the football if Kol kicks it over here again.”

She shrugged, straightening the daisy behind his ear. “What are best friends for?”

His hand froze, green crayon poised over the paper for a second too long. “Exactly,” he finally said, keeping his eyes down. _Best friends_. Not the “puppy love” Finn and Elijah kept teasing him about.

Not at all.


	2. BFFs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: Sequel to puppy love!

His door slammed shut, and Klaus jumped at the noise. He frowned at Caroline, looking frantic as she sat next to him on the bed. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Did you know Tyler’s parents won’t be at his party on Friday?”

“I might have heard something about it,” he answered, shifting in discomfort. Truly, Lockwood had been bragging about it in the locker room, that and his plans to start a round of spin the bottle. They had somehow made it to eighth grade without playing, but it was all the boys could talk about these days - and the girls they hoped to kiss. “We don’t have to go.”

She snorted, moving closer to snatch the book out of his hands. “Of course we do, we’d be the only ones who don’t go.”

Shaking his head, Klaus leaned back on his hands to give her his full attention. “Then what’s the problem?”

“I’m nervous! I’ve never kissed anyone before!”

He blinked. “Oh.”

_Oh._

“Well,” he said, wishing the blood would rush to his brain instead. He licked his lips as he looked to the door, just waiting for one of his siblings to burst in and save him from himself. “What’s so bad about that? It’s not like I’ve kissed anyone either.”

Caroline bit her lip. “I know,” she said quietly. It was strange; she was never quiet. “So, I thought…”

“You thought…?”

Her teeth sunk in harder, but she released her lip with a look of sheer determination. “I thought we could practice. Together.”

“Caroline!”

She threw her hands up in exasperation. “What are best friends for?”

It felt like his heart launched up to his throat, only to drop low in his stomach. “I-”

“I just,” she interrupted, “I don’t want everyone else to watch my first kiss, and I trust you to be nice about it, even if it’s terrible.”

Klaus scoffed. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

Grabbing his hand, she squeezed with a bright smile. “Is that a yes?”

He smiled, helpless to do anything else. “Yes. How do we-”

But Caroline was fearless as ever, pressing her lips to his without further ado. Their noses knocked together, and his neck hurt for the angle; still, he wouldn’t trade this for anything. Sure, Friday and the party would pose different problems for his inconvenient crush. 

That’s no reason not to enjoy the moment. His best friend was kissing him, and they kept smiling against each other until they laughed. 

It wasn’t terrible at all.


	3. Sweethearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> recyclingss asked: sequel to the puppy love sequel where we see the party at Tyler's!! :')
> 
> Anonymous said: oooh please do a sequel to puppy love! like when they’re older

Rebekah came barreling down the stairs with all the subtlety of an elephant herd. “She’s ready,” she whispered, like it was any secret to Klaus they’d have to leave soon. Bouncing on her toes, she somehow seemed more excited for prom at twelve than he did to actually go. “Do you have the corsage?”

“Right here.” He turned to find his mother holding the flowers she’d kept safe in the fridge. She smoothed back a section of his hair, then set the box down to straighten his tie. “You look very handsome.”

He could hear Kol snickering from the couch, though he was decidedly more focused on his video game. “Shut up,” Klaus muttered, shrugging off his mother’s continued fussing with a fierce blush. “Can we just-”

But whatever plea for his sanity was lost when Caroline appeared at the top of the stairs, her dress swaying like a bell around her feet as she walked down. With a shriek, Rebekah pulled out her phone to take pictures; lucky, because Klaus couldn’t even remember to breathe. 

Her smile widened at his reaction, and he swore she slowed to draw it out. “Hi,” she said when she towered over him in her heels, biting her lip. “You look good in a tux.”

“You’re beautiful,” he replied honestly. Grinning, he leaned forward to kiss her, only for her to lean away. His grin melted into a pout. “What?”

“No ruining my lipstick,” she warned, then her voice dropped so only he would hear. “Yet.”

Helpless to argue with such an offer, he nodded. Rebekah still snapped pictures from every angle, but he couldn’t be bothered by it, even when Caroline pulled him into a few different poses. Once the corsage was on her wrist and the boutonniere on his lapel, it felt like open season on high school memories. To his credit, he only grumbled a bit - usually when Kol tossed out commentary.

Really, he just wanted to get Caroline all to himself. Like she was thinking the same thing, she started leading them to the front door. “Thank you for letting me get ready here, Mrs. Mikaelson, I know my mom will appreciate the pictures since she was stuck working.”

“Of course, dear,” his mother said, ushering them out. “Drive safe, back by one. The trundle bed is made up in Rebekah’s room, try not to wake her when you get in.”

Smiling with her lips pressed tightly together, Caroline nodded, and Klaus could tell the blush wasn’t all cosmetic. They were old hat at sneaking around their parents’ rules, and prom night would not be an exception. “See you tomorrow,” he said pointedly, taking Caroline’s hand as they walked out to his car.

Before he could open her door, though, she twirled around and pulled him to her with a smirk. “Hi,” she said again.

He took her admonishment from earlier to heart and dropped his lips to her favorite spot under her jaw. “Hello, love. Are you ready to dance tonight?”

Nodding, she trailed her fingers over his freshly shaved face. “Are you ready to help me out of this dress tonight? I swear, your sister was channeling an evil governess when she tightened the corset.”

Klaus rolled his eyes. “She’s excited.” His lips brushed her ear, the perfume she wore making his head swim. “And I’d be honored.”

“Good answer,” Caroline said, holding his chin to press the lightest kiss to his mouth and frowning when she still had to clean a smudge of red off his lips. “Okay, let’s go.”


End file.
